And Another Casino Is Being Planned In Atlantic City

Andrew Calvo | November 13, 2008 | 0 Comments

There are so many posts I’ve wanted to write about issues that are popping up in Atlantic City’s casino development industry – most all of them construction holds since the economy has taken a turn for the worst. Yesterday, the Press of Atlantic City made me feel as though I wasn’t the only one who still saw Atlantic City as a great place for casino development (maybe not right now – but definitely in the future) and wrote an article about plans to bring yet another casino to Atlantic City – this one on land located directly across the street and to the south of the Borgata. Currently the plans are very preliminary – the first step is for Atlantic City to re-zone the area to casino development from its current use of regular commercial. The property owner does not seem to think this is insurmountable since in the past Atlantic City had considered re-zoning it, but there was no interest so it never went through.

The land, pictured below is the triangular piece in the lower right corner, surrounded by Brigantine Blvd, Huron Ave, and the White Horse Pike, additionally another parcel is to the left of the Borgata’s parking garage (The Borgata is the building on the top right) – its combined of the wetlands area as well solid ground.

I’m pretty familiar with this property because I’ve seen it lying there for years now – essentially undeveloped since the Borgata & the Atlantic City Connection tunnel was built. I’ve always wondered who owned it and why it was undeveloped – its prime property – directly across from the Borgata, surrounded on all sides by highways that are essentially the access points to Northern Atlantic City and in the center of Atlantic City’s “other” gambling neighborhood. In the Press’s article they have a graphic showing the property that is being referenced as the entire plot of land bordered by the three highways – although its quite obvious that some of that would not be included. The electric generating station would not be included, nor would the extensive highways that crisscross the property – one of the negatives of what could have been such a prime piece of property.

One major drawback of the combination of the properties is the highways that divide the entire parcel. Any project that gets built joining these two properties will end up being an architectural and design first.Depending on what area you’re traversing, you can cross two highway on-ramps, or two 6 lane highways. A dramatic and probably very expensive platform would have to be built so that pedestrians and probably vehicles an easily go in between the parcels.

The Press of Atlantic City leaves a lot of facts are unclear, such as the owners of the property and who is doing what, but I did some research on my own and the results were pretty interesting.

The principal in the project is Robert Pagano, a real estate broker from Northern NJ who owns the land to the left of the Borgata. Robert has apparently joined up with Triple Five Worldwide – the owners of the Mall of America in Minnesota and West Edmonton Mall in Canada – two of the largest malls in the world. The actual owner of the land within the triangle is Marina Tower Associates, a company that is affiliated with Stephen N. Frankel Real Estate. Stephen Frankel has a history of acquiring land and putting parcels together for casinos in Atlantic City (and he was a former owner in the Berkley Carteret Hotel, which is a historic hotel in my hometown of Asbury Park), so I think it is fair to suggest that he has assembled this land and either Triple Five or Mr. Pagano is intending to purchase it if the zoning change can be approved.

The biggest part of this project – is the involvement of Triple Five Worldwide. Triple Five is a company that I’ve never heard of before – but most people have heard of the Mall of America, and likewise, I’m sure people in Canada have heard of the West Edmonton Mall, additionally Triple Five has many subsidiaries that do everything from oil and natural gas drilling, to owning hotels to owing Wayne Industries – a huge manufacturer of garbage trucks. Triple Five’s logo resembles a slot machine, and their US headquarters is in Las Vegas – sounds to me like casinos are their next foray.

From what I’ve been able to find out – the only casino project that Triple Five has been involved in is Riviera Holdings in Las Vegas, which consists of the Rivera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and Riviera Blackhawk in Colorado. Riviera Holdings has recently been part of two attempted takeovers by Riv Acquisition Holdings – a company owned partially by Robert FX Sillerman and Barry Sternlicht. Riviera just announced they are going through a difficult time with the economy and have even had to stop all renovations of their hotel rooms. Triple Five also owns 18 acres to the south of the Riviera where the Conrad Hotel was to be built and its been rumored that they intend to build a casino development there, although nothing has been said of it yet. The last news heard from Triple Five about their location was back in April 2008 where they managed to acquire almost all the property on that one corner for a large development

The Press has inferred that Triple Five’s involvement is mainly to bring a large retail component to the site – but I question that because Atlantic City has so much retail already I’m not sure that there are any more high end stores that can fit into the town. The Walk & The Pier offer almost every type of store imaginable, and a retail component on this property doesn’t have the draw that it would for The Walk or The Pier because of its location being more conducive to a hotel stay, rather than a quick jaunt to the mall or a day of shopping.I’m not suggesting that there will not be any retail at all – in order for any type of resort project to work some retail would need to be involved, I just don’t think we’ll see a third huge retail development in Atlantic City. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Triple Five do something else on a very large scale – perhaps an indoor ski slope which has become popular of late?

In actuality, this project has a lot of hurdles to jump, and everything is in such preliminary stages who knows what the end result will be – or when anything will actually be built. There are so many other projects in Atlantic City that have been recently been put on hold that it will take awhile for the market to be below saturation point with new developments coming online. I wouldn’t expect to see this project approved before 2010 at the absolute earliest – this is one of those projects that takes years upon years to finalize.

I think it’s a good sign for Atlantic City that this project has even been brought up and has gotten this far – it shows that Atlantic City is far from a demise due to the smoking bans and new slots parlors in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. It also further solidifies the Renaissance Point area of Atlantic City as a gambling area – with three casinos open now, the MGM Grand Atlantic City on the drawing boards (although, on hold) the ability for two other casino developments to be built (the remainder of the MGM property, and the parcel between the bay and Trump Marina) and the renovations and promise of a renewed Trump Marina (to be renamed Margaraitaville) the stakes are going to be even higher for the aging properties on the boardwalk and the development to come on Bader Field.

Very interested in Triple Five’s plans – until now, I’ve never heard of them, but I think they will come into casinos big time and I’m going to keep an eye on them.

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